


Who Runs The World? Alice Cooper

by protectmikasamuels2017



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Cheryl Blossom Needs a Hug, Gen, Jughead Jones Needs a Hug, M/M, alice cooper gets things done, alice cooper had proclaimed herself the one who gets things done, and she knows it, plotting a million and one different schemes, she is really the only competent person in riverdale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24522256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectmikasamuels2017/pseuds/protectmikasamuels2017
Summary: Alice had always known that she was the most competent and reliable out of all her peers.She knew that at some point she was going to have to step in and clean up the mess that has been made of Riverdale recently.That didn't mean she was happy about it.From rescuing children from some shocking parenting situations, to solving murders, to taking down gang leaders and being the best reporter in Riverdale, it was all in a days work for her.And as soon as Tom Keller got his head out of his ass and realised that her suspicions were always correct, Riverdale's crimes would be solved much sooner.
Relationships: Alice Cooper & Betty Cooper, Alice Cooper & Cheryl Blossom, Alice Cooper & Jughead Jones, Alice Cooper & Polly Cooper, Archie Andrews/Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper & Jughead Jones, Cheryl Blossom & Polly Cooper
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	Who Runs The World? Alice Cooper

**Author's Note:**

> This work is very heavily inspired by 'And there are dreams that cannot be (and there are storms we cannot weather)' by lovelyflowersinherhair and 'Alice Cooper Adopts the World' by Emerald Ashes. They both have one thing in common: Alice Cooper is in charge and she gets things done! Seriously they are both so good and are up there on my absolute favourite Riverdale fics.
> 
> And the parenting class with eggs that I've mentioned here belongs to Jugheadjones story 'Wouldn't it be good'. Honestly if the only thing you did today was read those three fics then I can tell you then your day wouldn't be wasted. They are so good, so well-written and really funny too. There some of the best fics in the Riverdale fandom in my opinion.
> 
> This is an au from season one from after FP gets arrested for Jason's murder, with the only real divergence before then is that Bughead and Varchie doesn't happen.

Alice had always known that she was most competent and reliable out of all her peers. She wasn’t sure though whether it was a quality that she had always had and honed as she was growing up; or if it had been a result of marrying Hal the summer before senior year and then being carted off to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. Prudence Cooper had then taken her under her hen-pecking wing immediately after she had gotten back and had taught her everything about being the perfect suburban wife. Which probably also helped. 

The first time it truly hit her though was on her graduation day, because while everyone else at the after party were busy making fools of themselves; during which Fred Andrews had accidentally set himself on fire, Marty Mantle had jumped into the pool from the roof and Hermione Gomez and FP Jones had almost started streaking together. She, on the other hand, had been the only one present to remain calm and sane.

And if she had spent her time at the party wondering if murdering her now former classmates or preventing them from having children would be more beneficial and kind to both society and any theoretical children they could have, then that was her business.

And she really should have done it. Especially as they all aged gracefully, well she did, the same couldn’t be said for everyone else, and had families of their own. Sweet God, they were all shocking parental figures. Fred and Mary had more or less let Archie run wild growing up and in all honesty Elizabeth and the Jones boy were his only reliable positive influences.

She also knew deep down that she should have called social services on FP and Gladys Jones as their children were growing up as well. She wouldn’t have trusted either of them with one of those eggs that they had gotten sophomore year for the parenting and marriage module in health class. She herself had gotten paired with Hiram Lodge during that project in an absolute nightmare of an experience. Everyday she still thanked whoever was out there that she wasn’t married to him legally. At least Hal had left the majority of parenting their daughters to her as they were growing up.

And she still remembered the day that they had handed their eggs in even years on. Gladys and Marty Mantle’s wasn’t even a chicken egg. Apparently an hour before they had had to hand theirs in, they had gone and gotten high and had done . . . something to destroy the egg. And then they had tried to hand back an egg-shaped rock, still as high as fucking kites the both of them on whatever it was that they took.

On the other side, FP and Penelope were actually one of the three groups who hadn’t broken their eggs even once during the project (well actually it was two groups, but she had managed to swap her broken ‘child’ out for one in the Cooper’s kitchen. She would rather burn Riverdale to the fucking ground than give Hiram Lodge the smug satisfaction of thinking that she was an inadequate parent.), but that was only because Penelope had done one hundred percent of the caring during that project. So she was more than convinced based on that experience alone that it was actually that Jughead boy who had been doing the parenting in that household.

Hermione and Hiram had left Riverdale shortly after high school but from what she remembered of them she knew that their parenting of any child would be a disaster. Hiram had been a nightmare of a co-parent after all. And she knew that Hermione would be just as bad even without Hal’s own rants about the nightmare of a project partner she had been.

And of course the Blossoms were awful people and she knew they’d be awful parents. You only had to spend less than a minute in the general company of the red-headed devils that they have been raising to know that. Preventing an egg from breaking was much different than actually being a competent parent after all. And they were disasters.

So she should have known that at some point she was going to have to step in and be the authority figure that so many young people in Riverdale were lacking right now. Especially as she seemed to be the only capable of the position. Even their Sheriff was useless. She reckoned that even FP would do a much better job than Tom Keller was doing and twenty five years on from high school she still wouldn’t trust that snake with caring for an egg, let alone his own children.

So it was up to her. It was not a position that she ever wanted but sweet God, someone had to clean up this mess.

X  
  
It had all started when Jason Blossom’s body had been found in Sweetwater River with a bullet buried in his head after everyone had believed that the boy had drowned on the 4th of July. And from there it had all slowly spiraled into a gigantic mess, helped along marvelously by Tom Keller’s sub-par detective skills.

Elizabeth, instead of using her sophomore year to focus on her studies and appropriate extra-curriculars to attract prospective colleges, had instead decided that a much better use of her time was to uncover the truth behind a murder investigation, ignoring her orders to not find her sister and hanging out with the entirely wrong people. Archie Andrews, the Lodge girl and the Jones boy, although she had slowly changed her mind on the last one in the last few weeks as he and Elizabeth spent more time together at her house working on school work and the Blue and Gold. FP may be a disaster of a human being, but his son was a well-behaved member of society she had to admit.

Then Polly had run away from the Sisters, had hid in the attic and then had gone to live with the Blossoms. And finally, after a long ordeal once Hal had finally grown a pair and admitted the truth about her and Jason being cousins, she had come home with them to process the revelation. And she finally had both her daughters back home where they were supposed to be. Safe, under her watchful eye. Polly being home made it much easier to plan the nursery too.

And then FP had confessed to Jason’s murder.

And she had to admit to herself that she was surprised. While she may not like FP Jones and while she may never miss an opportunity to criticise the Southside or the Serpents in the Register, she had known FP for her whole life and she had never once thought that he was a man capable of murder. Blackmail, yes. Vandalism, yes. Assault, yes. Arson, yes. Yes to all of them and a good few more really. But murder? Definitely not. Something was going on. And she was going to get to the bottom of it. She just knew that it had the makings of an amazing story.

But right now Jughead was the Jones that she was focusing on.

FP was the one who had made his bed and she would uncover the truth regarding Jason Blossom’s end one way or another. That man wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, not if Tom Keller had his way. Jughead would be though, by the end of the week unless something was done.

While Betty still provided nothing useful verbally about her friends and their situations, her diary thankfully was very detailed. Through that, she had learned about the initial meeting that Fred Andrews had had with Social Services about Jughead’s fate and that lump of a social worker suggesting that he would be better off on the Southside. 

Oh please, she wasn’t born yesterday. She knew exactly what would happen the second Jughead set foot on the Southside. His foster family would undoubtedly be related to a gang in some way. If it were the Ghoulies he’d be dead within a day, those maniacs were not going to be able to resist hurting FP that way. If it was the Serpents then they would immediately try and poach him into joining. Without FP to make them back off, the Jones family as legacies within the Serpents, and Jughead’s own lack of experience when it came to dealing with them meant that he’d find himself in over his head and backed into a corner with no other option but to take the jacket in a matter of weeks. 

And after what Betty had written about Fred Andrew callous brushing off of Jughead and labelling him as the same stuff as his father after FP’s arrest, she knew the boy would find no ally in that corner.

So when the day of the next meeting the Andrews and Jughead had with the Social worker that was written in Betty’s diary came around she had spent the whole afternoon watching the Andrews’ house vigantly. Polly, who had been helping her prepare a lasagna for dinner, idly remarked on her refusal to move.

“Has Mr Andrews done something wrong?”

“Yes.”

“Is it something about Archie?”

“For once it’s not about that shocking parenting. Of that child anyway.”

“. . . I feel so sorry for him.”

“Don’t be. He’s earned the lecture he’s about to get.”

So she had waited and watched as Archie and Jughead arrived back at the house, then came Fred and Mary Andrews - not together, but separately, and then finally some cheap car pulled up and out stepped some middle aged woman with a bad dye job and wearing a cheap ill-fitting suit.

So she grabbed her house key just in case she got locked out and marched over to the Andrews house to sort all this out once and for all.

Forty-five minutes later her and the girls were sitting down to dinner. Hal was working late at the Register so it was just the three of them.

“Work will begin on the basement next week Polly, and I want to know by that Friday what colour you want the nursery painted. Just the main colours for the walls and ceiling for now. Anything else for decoration can wait until later. Oh, and Elizabeth can you make sure that the guest room is prepared? Jughead will be moving in with us tomorrow and I will not stand for a dusty room or an unmade bed.”

Now that had gotten both of her daughter's attention.

“What?” Betty asked, her eyes wide in an obvious manipulation tactic, but she wasn’t falling for it.

“Yes,“ she supplied, not taking her eyes off her task of tossing the salad. “I have negotiated with Social Services to allow Jughead to stay in our home instead of being relocated to the Southisde. He’ll be staying with us for the foreseeable future.”

Looking back she had thought that she probably should have marked this as the moment where chaos had undoubtedly entered her life and destroyed the illusion that she had spent decades building. She couldn’t find it in her to weep much at the loss.

Flicking her eyes up to watch both of her daughter’s reactions she found two very different things.

Betty was practically vibrating with happiness. Her diary recently had noted her thoughts and fears for Jughead and how she was worried that he might spiral after the shocking revelation of his father’s arrest. Under her watchful eye however she was going to ensure that that did not happen. She may have been more worried about letting the two teenagers who were clearly very close live under the same roof but she had already gotten to the part in Betty’s diary that informed her that he had more in common with the Keller boy than she had first thought.

That was one less problem to worry over.

Polly on the other hand was chewing on her lip sullenly trying to process the information, one hand rubbing her swollen belly. Having the son of the man who had murdered the father of her children living in the same house as her was not something she expected. Well, it was a big house they could avoid each other if they worked hard.

Her eldest daughter didn’t object verbally however so she counted that as a win.

X

She was actually surprised at how quickly Jughead folded into the family’s dynamics and routine. But then she found herself wondering just how they would cope with the hole he would leave if he were to leave their home.

Well, it was a pretty big ‘if’.

Betty and Jughead had immediately adapted a routine for themselves. They studied together, walked to school together, worked on the Blue and Gold together. Jughead even let Betty read his novel, something no one else was allowed to glance at. She didn't know what he was being so shy about; it was a little over-detailed in some bits but had the potential to be a classic in a few years time.

Polly and Jughead had avoided each other like the plague for the first few days after he had moved in but they quickly managed to form a connection. He was beyond eager to help her with whatever she needed. Whether it was helping her study with her online classes, getting her whatever she was craving at that moment or being her sounding board as she talked about the pros and cons of the different colours that she could paint the nursery with. 

And he was helpful around the house. He helped with the chores, always kept his room tidy, was a godsend now they were converting the basement into Polly’s new room and nursery for the babies and didn’t try to sneak that Andrews boy over here. Very wisely he chose to spend his time with that boy outside the house.

FP Jones and Fred Andrews may not have appreciated what they had had when they had it but she certainly did.

She did try to track down his mother though. Not because she wanted that woman to take her son back but because she wanted some answers. Jughead had been more tight lipped than he normally was about the circumstances surrounding his mother and sister’s departure. Not even Betty and her diary knew anything. She suspected that he may have told Archie Andrews but if he had then the ginger was being unusually tight lipped over the matter unfortunately.

From what she could extract from the boy, Gladys Jones had just upped and left in the middle of the night with her youngest child and abandoned her eldest to parent a drunk, irresponsible gang leader. And then apparently she had turned him away when he had turned to her asking could he come stay. Something was clearly afoot.

So she had waited until one Saturday morning when Jughead and Betty had gone to spend the day and then sleepover at the Pembroke, despite her internal disapproval. Polly meanwhile had accepted an offer from Cheryl Blossom for lunch outside of Riverdale on the assurance that her mother would not be making an appearance. She had no idea where Hal was nor did she care at this point. His behaviour the last few months had been shocking and she had no desire to spend anymore time with him than what was absolutely necessary. No doubt he would try and stop her if he knew what she was planning on doing.

Once she knew where all the members of her household were (well those she cared about) she grabbed her coat, her bag and her keys and then she was in her car and heading towards Toledo.

It didn’t take long to track Gladys down once she had arrived in the city. She knew where the woman’s parents lived and through that she managed to find the garage that she was working in. She could see her daughter in there with her, helping her work on some old banger.

She watched in silence for a moment, squaring up her opponent before she rolled her shoulders back and marched towards the dirty garage.

Time for answers.

X

Ok, well, she wanted answers and now she got them.

She sat stunned for a moment in her car as she processed all that she had learned and picked up from her square off with FP’s estranged wife.

Gladys wasn’t Jughead’s biological mother. Apparently FP had slept with someone else when him and Gladys had been going through a rough patch in their relationship. And that someone turned out to be no other than Hermione Lodge. Who had signed away her rights when Jughead was born without a second thought and then had her daughter less than a year later. So Gladys didn’t think twice about leaving Jughead alone with FP when she herself skipped town a few months earlier. Never mind the fact that that boy loved her and had no other mother figure but her. Never mind the fact that he didn’t even know that she wasn’t his mother.

And just like FP, just like Hiram and undoubtedly like Hermione as well, Gladys was involved in some sort of criminal activity. She saw the jacket that the woman had thought she had been subtly motioning to her daughter to hide. A leather jacket with a snake on the back just like the Southside Serpents, only this snake was curled around a giant ‘T’. And from what she saw in that garage, she had suspicions that the woman was also organising some kind of drug ring there in Ohio. Oh, she was going to get to the bottom of that. The fact that the woman wasn’t in the same state as her anymore didn’t matter. Alice Cooper wouldn’t let a factor like that deter her from getting to the bottom of a good story. 

The whole drive back home her mind had been moving a million miles an hour, plotting how best to handle the information she had gotten from her time in Toledo.

She would have to do some more digging before she could report Glady’s illegal activities to the authorities. She had learned unfortunately that they do not take you seriously if all you have is a hunch. 

Which was beyond ridiculous. When would people learn that she always knew what was going on and that her hunches were always correct?

And when she got to the bottom of the Jason Blossom mystery she was really going to be giving Tom Keller a serious lecture about listening to her and how to do his job correctly.

First things first though. She had to talk to FP.

X

While FP had rather reluctantly told her the truth about his fling with Hermione Lodge, he was clearly lying about killing Jason Blossom; she could see it in the man’s eyes. But he refused to answer any of her questions and Tom kicked her out after fifteen minutes when he had finally realised that he had been duped. Instead of putting up a fight however, she allowed herself to be led out, pondering over what FP had said to her.

_‘Take care of my boy Alice.’_

That statement had rung louder than anything else he had said to her for some reason, even though it wasn’t very informative or worth much considering. 

Groaning she shoved the thought aside and focused on what else she had gained from the conversation or perhaps a better word for it would be, interrogation.

He was clearly lying about him being the killer, but why?

There were two obvious reasons for that, she considered. One was that he was protecting the killer themselves; but considering that Jason was shot at point-blank range in what was more than likely cold blood, that didn’t make much sense. The second, and probably more likely reason, was that the real killer was threatening him with something, but what?

 _Jughead._ The answer hit her like a ton of bricks. FP loved his son despite the fact that he should never have been allowed to raise him. If the real killer was threatening FP with Jughead’s safety then that was a believable reason for him to confess to a crime he didn’t commit. He did after all give up and let Jughead be raised by Fred Andrews rather than go back to the trailer park with him, despite clearly wanting otherwise as the Andrews had been clearly better for Jughead.

There’s the motivation for confessing, but who was doing the threatening? That would leave a rather large suspect pool. Anyone with half a brain after all would know that the best way to make someone do something would be to threaten their child. She would do anything after all to protect Polly and Betty. And if she had gotten the chance, then she would have done anything to protect Charles. 

But there weren't a lot of people who could successfully intimidate FP Jones. She remembered a few years back when the kids were eight, some low-life Ghoulies had kidnapped Jughead from the playground to try to intimidate FP and make the Serpents back down over a turf war. All that had done instead was result in FP beating the crap out of any Ghoulie that he had come across and using his Serpents to further crack down on their rival gang. They had then trashed the Ghoulies main bases until they found Jughead, a bit shaken but thankfully unharmed. 

And after that neither of the Jones children had gone nowhere without their parents or a trusted Serpent accompanying them for months. Even at school they were watching them from the other side of the road. Whoever was threatening him now clearly had more power than the usual people who went up against FP. The man didn’t even get intimidated by herself, or people with positions of power in Riverdale’s society like Sierra McCoy or Tom Keller. 

That at the very least, narrowed the suspect pool.

X

There had been no blow ups of any kind when FP had finally told Jughead the truth about who his mother is. She had wanted to tell him herself but FP had threatened to phone his son and tell him over the phone and that was no way to have a conversation like that.

So, rather reluctantly, she had given in and worned down Tom again to let Jughead in to see his dad. And then forced him not to barge in and interrupt the Jones men in the middle of an incredibly private and sensitive conversation. It had taken a few under-handed threats but she got the man to remember how to sit quietly.

Forty-five minutes had passed before a pale, somber-looking Jughead emerged. He walked quietly out of the room and Alice had sheparded him towards the car while already mentally planning a scathing review in the Register about their Sheriff’s abilities and competence for his current job.

Jughead refused to speak a word on the way back home and for once Alice decided to not probe him for information. Something like this was a lot to process after all. Halfway home however, he had taken out his phone and started to text someone.

Once they had arrived back, Jughead’s phone had buzzed again, clearly with a reply to his previous text. He had barely glanced at it before he was jumping out of the car and walking down the street back towards town.

“And where do you think you’re going?” she had called out after him.

“I’m meeting Veronica'' he called back after her, completely uncaring of what the neighbours might think. But he did have FP and Gladys Jones for role models growing up and had called Sunnyside trailer park home where public fights and the inner workings of people’s personal lives were broadcasted to the other inhabitants without a care in the world. This was probably low-key for him. “She deserves to know about this.”

Which was probably true. God knows just what else those people have kept from their daughter over the years. There was every possibility that Jughead was not the only sibling that she had out there. Probably the only one on her mother’s side, but still.

“I want you back by ten though” she called back after him as he turned back to continue on his way to what would no doubt be a very uncomfortable conversation with Veronica and more than likely Hermione Lodge. How that woman hadn’t thought that she was going to have that uncomfortable conversation when she had rolled back into Riverdale with her tail between her legs, Hiram’s shame knocking off the high perch that she’s held herself on since senior year was beyond her. She hoped that Jughead would make the experience and the questions he asked as uncomfortable as possible for her.

Make her squirm. Even after the shame her husband's trial had brought on the woman, she was still walking around like she was the queen bee. ‘Humbling’ herself by working at Pop’s, having an affair with Fred Andrews, the righteous way she held herself just made Alice’s blood boil. Something was up. Escaping the publicity and media of New York was not the only reason that she had come to Riverdale with her daughter. She had a hunch and her hunches were always right. So in her mental notebook she had marked ‘figure out what Hermione is up to’ next to ‘figure out who FP is taking the fall for’ and ‘Gladys Jones drug ring’, on the stories to uncover. 

Betty had just been getting ready to head out the door when she walked in, shrugging her jacket on. Polly had been at the kitchen counter, making some kind of sundae consisting of four different kinds of ice cream, canned fruit, whipped cream, three different kinds of sauce and an unhealthy amount of sprinkles.

“Where’s Jughead?” Betty asked, just as Alice had asked “and where do you think you’re going?” Just like she had expected the question threw her younger daughter, making her stumble like a newborn foal.

“I was just going to meet Veronica at Pop's,” Betty explained in a fake display of nerves, making her blue eyes twice their normal size, obviously in an attempt to manipulate her.

“Not tonight you’re not” she corrected, walking over to the cupboards and pulling a bowl and a spoon out for herself. “Jughead and Veronica are about to have a very important conversation there between the two of them and possibly with Hermione Lodge as well. Your presence is the last thing that those two will need right now. You can meet her some other time when you’re not glued to each other’s hips at school.”

Betty looked like she was about to challenge her, but a hard look and a raised eyebrow had her youngest backing down as she took her jacket back off. Satisfied, Alice joined Polly by the counter where Polly had finished her unholy design with a cherry on top and made her own frozen treat. She had definitely earned it.

X

Jughead was two hours late getting back that night and Alie had had half a mind to grab her keys and grab him from Pop’s herself. She had just enough self-control not to as she knew herself well enough to know that she would just end up having a cat fight with Hermione over this situation and even at this hour, it would be the main subject of gossip in the morning. Word travelled fast in Riverdale even when she wasn’t helping it along.

He arrived back home eventually the Lodges driver bringing him back in one of the family's expensive cars. She had been on her second cup of tea when he walked through the door, hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders back in that God awful hunch that she had thought that she had gotten out of him.

“You’re late” she said when he didn’t even bother to say hello. With one foot, she pushed the chair beside her out towards him and he sat down without a second thought. “How did it go?” she pushed.

“She didn’t believe me at first” he explained, refusing to meet her eyes, another habit that she had thought that she had gotten out of him. “But eventually she realised that I wasn’t joking. And then we went back to the Pembroke and confronted Hermione about it.”

“She tried to lie,” Jughead whispered, looking near seconds away from tears. “She tried to act like I was nothing more than a manipulative liar and the same with you, and dad and mum. It was only when Veronica threatened to get a DNA test done that she finally admitted the truth.”

OK, that’s it, this was war. It was one thing to call her a manipulative liar, because well, those were some of her personality traits and the same with FP and Gladys. But it was another thing altogether for Hermione to suggest the same thing of Jughead, her sixteen year old child. A child who had neither of those traits. Who had more kindness and honesty in him than any of them had in the tip of their pinky toes. Which the woman would know if she had even bothered to have one conversation with the boy. Internally Alice bumped ‘find out what Hermione was up to’ up to joint first with FP’s case. If she was really lucky, whatever it was would be so illegal that even the Lodge’s money and connections wouldn’t stop her from experiencing the inside of a state prison for a good long stretch.

“And she just kept lying,” Jughead explained further, “or switching between lying and telling the truth. Or telling half-truths. Like she just wasn’t able to be honest with me for even five minutes.”

“I think that at this point Jughead that that woman doesn’t know the difference between lies and the truth herself anymore” Alice spoke matter of factly while her mind mapped out ways of plotting the woman’s downfall. “She and that husband of hers are both rotten to the core. I would take everything she says with a grain of salt. Especially her opinion of you seeing as she hadn’t even bothered to hold a conversation with you before now. All this has proven is just how rotten she truly is.”

“I feel so bad for Veronica,” he continued. “I feel like I destroyed her vision of her mom. She could barely look at her without disgust by the time I was leaving. She was packing a bag and saying something about spending the night at Cheryl’s”

“You didn’t do anything,” she corrected sternly. “This is just a part of Hermione’s mask falling away and Veronica’s better off knowing it. She’s going to have to grow up eventually. Both her parents are God damn awful people. It’s better for her to know now before she gets involved with helping them with one of their shady business deals that could backfire and end up destroying her life and costing her her freedom.”

“Hermione was innocent,” Jughead frowned.

“They didn’t bother investigating her,” Alice corrected. “That doesn’t mean she’s innocent. Unlike the Feds, I’ve known her for years and I know that she’s just as guilty as her husband is in those shady deals. She may look like a trophy wife, but she is just as cunning and as manipulative and as shady as Hiram Lodge. Why else do you think he married her?”

Jughead didn’t bother to reply to that, but the frown on his face deepened further. For a few minutes they just sat in silence before Alice got up from her seat and flipped on the kettle once again.

Less than two minutes later, a steaming cup of chamomile tea was placed gently in front of Jughead, startling him out of his brooding.

“Drink that and head to bed” she ordered. “You still have school tomorrow morning, although I will write a note for you to allow you to miss homeroom.”

The next morning after Jughead had helped her tidy up the kitchen from that morning’s breakfast and she handed him a note for the office, he headed off to school, more melancholy than he has been ever since he arrived. Resolved, Alice sat down at the table with her laptop turned on, her notebook open on a fresh page, pen poised as she googled ‘Hermione Lodge.’ 

X

She wasn’t sure when Betty had invited Cheryl Demon Blossom into her home. The girl had just turned up a week after Halloween with a collection of suitcases in tow, and had moved into Polly’s old room. And now that she was there, Alice wasn’t sure just what was it that kept her from throwing the girl out.

Maybe it was because of her conscience; that she really couldn’t just throw a child out onto the streets as Cheryl had made it abundantly clear that she wouldn’t return home. Maybe it was because of Polly and her grandchildren. Even after she had moved back home, Polly had kept in regular contact with Cheryl and seemed to genuinely care about her. And even if for the babies if nothing else, Cheryl was beyond devoted to Polly. And maybe it was slightly because she wanted to see the look on Penelope Blossom’s face if the woman ever found out that her daughter had chosen living with the Cooper’s over the impressive Thornhill, that she and her husband had holed themselves up in.

No matter what the reason was, Cheryl was now calling the Cooper residence home and Alice had to do some slight reshuffling regarding the rooming situation. Her girls were now sharing a room, although thankfully for only a few days longer as the basement was near completed with the only jobs left being the plastering, painting and decorating. Cheryl was now in Polly’s old room. She wasn’t about to make either of her girls suffer with rooming with the insufferable girl. 

She had overheard a conversation between Jughead and that Archie boy not long after Cheryl had turned up. With Archie offering Jughead that he could always come back to stay with him. “I know you live next door and everything now” he explained with a sheepish grin, raising his arms to scratch at the back of his neck in a way that the redhead had clearly thought was sexy. “But you know that you're always welcome at ours, right? I feel like I hardly ever see you anymore. And dad misses you too, he keeps asking whether you’re going to come around or have a sleepover or something.”

Fred Andrews probably just missed having a competent helper around the house. It was a good thing that Archie was easy on the eyes, because he wasn’t very smart.

X

She had been woken up by the sounds of soft voices speaking downstairs and had immediately put on her dressing gown and slippers to see what that was all about. Whoever was down there should be in bed, it was the middle of the night and they all had school in the morning.

And apparently all of her charges had seen fit to be up at two in the morning.

Cheryl was sitting at the head of the dining room table, with both her daughters on either side of her and Jughead on Betty’s other side. Curiously she hid in the shadows and waited for the secrets to reveal themselves.

“I’m sorry Jughead” Cheryl spoke quietly, her gaze fixed on her perfectly manicured hands, “for attacking you at school.”

“You were just upset” her foster son waved off, like it was no big deal. It was a perfectly big deal to Alice. She had nearly ripped Weatherbee’s head off for trying to pin the blame on Jughead for that. “You had just found out about my dad killing your brother, you had every reason to be angry.”

“Not at you,” she whispered, “and . . . I don’t think it was your dad.”

“What?” Polly asked confused while Betty and Jughead exchanged a look of shock. 

“I don’t think FP Jones killed Jason” Cheryl pressed on, “I think I know who, but I don’t have any proof.”

“Who?” Jughead asked desperately. 

“Cheryl who?” Betty demanded, while Alice leaned forward hungrily from the shadows, this could be the key to finding the evidence to FP’s freedom.

“I think it was my dad.”

Hang on, what? Clifford Blossom killed his own son? Intrigued she stepped out of her hiding spot; so silently that she drew no attention to herself. The kids were all preoccupied with asking Cheryl a million and one questions that they didn’t notice until she cleared her throat and scared the living daylights out of all of them.

“I think I’ll take over the questioning from here on” she said, making sure that the tone of her voice brought no room for objections, making eye contact with both her daughters and her foster/adopted son. None of them tried to fight her on it. Satisfied, she turned back to the Blossom at her table. 

“How long have you been suspicious of your dad Cheryl?” she demanded.

“I’ve had my suspicions since Homecoming” Cheryl explained, “it was just something in the way Daddy acted that I couldn’t help it. He had been acting strange during the whole investigation. He wasn’t showing any signs of grief or anger although before then I had thought that it was just because he didn’t want people thinking that he was weak. But the way he was at Homecoming and when FP had gotten arrested, it just raised my suspicions. He had a role in Jason meeting his end, he had a role in his murder, I know it. But I can’t prove anything.”

“Homecoming was weeks ago, why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Polly demanded, upset.

“To who? Tom Keller?” Alice snorted. “If this investigation has proved anything it’s that that man isn’t qualified to even be a mall cop let alone our Sheriff. Look at the way he’s treated Jughead and Cheryl during this if you want proof. He’s not going to listen to someone’s suspicions, not when he's convinced that FP is his man and is finally getting the chance to lay charge after charge on him to ensure that he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison.”

“Do you know why Cheryl?” Jughead spoke up suddenly, fixing the Blossom girl with a hard look.

“What?” Betty frowned, turning to face Jughead as he tapped his fingers against the table in an irregular beat.

“Do you have any idea why your dad would kill your brother?” he asked. “What’s his motivation? After all everyone’s talking about my dad’s, they all think that he killed Jason because of drugs. But what reason would your dad have for killing Jason? His own son?”

“If he found the will, then he had a reason” Cheryl whispered, looking scared.

“What will?” Alice demanded.

“Not many people know this, but when Grandaddy died, nothing went to Daddy and Uncle Claudius. Mummy was in charge of everything until her death and then it would go to Daddy. Of course Nana Rose gave Daddy control of the company and both him and Uncle Claudius got a good amount of profit from the company, so nobody had ever assumed that they had been passed over. And Daddy had his own little side business that made us a good amount of money so I guess Mummy and Daddy had originally agreed to let Nana Rose die of natural causes because they were still the ones in charge at the time and when Nana Rose did die they’d get everything anyway.”

Clifford Blossom wasn’t the real one in charge? Fascinating.

“But Nana didn’t trust Mummy or Daddy so she had her will changed in secret when we were around eight years old” Cheryl continued. “She had my parents and uncle bypassed entirely leaving everything to Jason and me. Even Thornhill and their potential shares in the company. So if she died tomorrow then I could cut my parents off without a penny and kick them out of Thornhill if I truly wanted too. If you’d read it at a glance then you’d only assume that Jason would be the sole benefactor of it and then it’d go back to them. I don’t know what her reasoning for that was. The lawyer couldn’t tell me a lot about it, and by the time I did find out, Nana Rose had already gone pretty senile.”

“So you think that your Dad found out about the will and just assumed that Jason would be the sole inheritance?” Alice pressed.

“Yes,” Cheryl nodded, “I mean, when it comes to inheritance it has always passed from father to oldest son for hundreds of years even before the Blossoms had come to America. Wills had always just been a formality to make sure that the younger sons didn’t try to steal the business or to disown the eldest when they didn’t behave in a way that their parents had liked. Daughters had never inherited anything. They got a dowry when they married and maybe some jewellery or furniture in the will, but they never were treated the same way as boys were.”

“And what did your nana’s will say?” Alice pressed further.

“Jason and I would inherit everything equally when nana Rose passed away” Cheryl muttered, chewing absently on the corner of one of her perfect nails. “If one of us died before then then it would automatically go the other.” 

“But because you’re expecting Jay-Jay’s babies Pollykins” she explained, brushing her hands gently over Polly’s, “then I would be the trustee for Jason’s share while the babies were growing up. It would immediately go back to the twins once they hit eighteen and they’d divide it up anyway they’d want.”

“And you think that your dad found out about the will” Betty concluded.

“Yes,” Cheryl nodded. “Or he had at least heard that nana had planned to bypass him in her will and he assumed that it was just Jason alone who would benefit from it. And I think that he killed Jason because of it. And I think that my parents and Uncle Claudius were the ones responsible for my nana’s recent fall. I know they pushed her, I know that it was deliberate. And I think that I might be next. They never cared for me, I was never needed. And now that Polly is expecting Jason’s baby, twins at that, I’m not needed to carry on the Blossom name. I was scared that if I stayed at that home then Daddy would kill me so he could get the money. And Mummy wouldn’t lift a finger to help me. I’m all that’s left between them and the company.”

You know just when Alice had thought that the Blossoms couldn’t sink any lower.

Once Cheryl had finally finished speaking a somber silence filled the room as they processed all that they had been told.

“We’ll need proof,” Jughead said decisively, breaking the silence. “Something concrete to link Clifford to Jason’s murder. He’s already had the murder weapon planted in my dad’s trailer and is clearly threatening him, but there must be something in his possession to incriminate him.”

“It’d be easier if he had hired someone” Alice muttered as her mind went through the possibilities. “If he did then it’d be much easier to find proof. An old text, a large amount of money paid out of his accounts. People in his position don’t think that they’d get caught committing crimes. It always makes it so much easier to find something to incriminate him then.”

Of course to do that they’d have to search his office and maybe the rest of his house . . . 

Maybe Cheryl could be useful after all.

X

After she had finally sent the kids back up to bed, Alice leaned against her sink and looked the window out into the night, pondering the new information and suspect in the Jason Blossom murder investigation.

Clifford Blossom did have the means; the man owned several guns legally and she was willing to bet that he had bought several on the blackmarket too to prevent any trace back to himself. And even if he hadn’t done the deed himself, Cheryl had confirmed after further questioning that he had at least one man on his payroll who would be willing to carry out a job like that.

He was the probably the only one in Riverdale that FP Jones would bow down too and actually be intimidated by.

And if Cheryl’s fears were true and he had found out about the contents of his mother’s will and had assumed that it was just Jason who would be the sole benefactor . . .

Then he had the motivation.

X

“Juniper and Dagwood?” Betty asked, hoping to God that the horror in her voice was well disguised.

“Do you like them?” Polly asked happily. 

Betty wasn’t sure how well she was hiding her own horror, but she was willing to bet that she was doing a much better job than Cheryl was. Jughead was hiding his own reaction in his coffee mug.

“And here I always thought that mine and Jellybean’s names were the worst that a parent could give their child” he muttered into his mug, while Betty discreetly kicked him at his ankle.

“Well they’re . . . unique.” Betty said after a moment when it became clear that Jughead was not going to voice his own thoughts louder than a mutter and Cheryl was clearly holding back her own as it wasn’t polite.

“Pollykins, darling” Cheryl eventually spoke even though it looked very much like it was paining her to do so. “Maybe you should consider different names. After all, while I do hate to say it, those names are not the kind that would do the babies any favours in their futures.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Polly frowned.

“It means that the kids at school are going to tease them mercilessly, college kids will just think they’re trying to reinvent themselves and they’re going to have difficulty finding jobs when they’re adults because nobody will take them seriously with names like that” Jughead explained, setting his mug down on the coffee table and leaning back on his elbows. 

“There’s a reason that me and my sister only go by our nicknames: our real ones are God awful. And neither our real name or our nicknames will do either of us any favours in our futures. Don’t be that parent Polly. I can safely say that as a child of parents like that is that those twins will just end up resenting you for it.”

For a brief moment Betty thought that Polly was just going to snap at Jughead and find a way to provoke an argument with him. Instead she just chewed her lip and asked “are you sure?” in a nervous voice, like she was worried.

“Yeah” Jughead confirmed, “Juniper could be disguised with a nickname like ‘Juni’ or ‘June’, but ‘Dagwood’? He’d have no hope.”

“I’m sure that there are other names that have the same vibe that you’re going for Polly and wouldn’t be a hindrance to them” Betty tried, eager to prevent Polly from taking their advice the wrong way and triggering a fight.

“Any suggestions?” Polly said arching an eyebrow in Betty’s direction.

“Beatrice?” Betty offered.

“Too old-fashioned” Polly disagreed.

“Murdoch?” she tried again.

“Sounds like someone’s last name” Polly sniffed.

“Chantelle?” Cheryl offered.

“Sounds too much like a character on tv.”

“Reginald?”

“Sweet God no, that’ll only make Reggie think I’m into him.”

“Rudolph!”

“Jughead at least try to take this seriously!” Polly snapped.

“We’ll be here for hours at the rate you three are going though” Jughead groaned, slumping down on the couch in a way that would have her mother snapping at him to sit up properly if she was here to see it.

“But I want the names to be perfect” her sister stressed, “and you guys have talked me out of Juniper and Dagwood now and it took me weeks when I was at the Sisters to come up with them.”

“Why don’t we start by making a list of names you absolutely don’t like and then we can work from there?” Betty offered and was relieved when that suggestion seemed to get agreement among everyone else sitting down. Cheered by that she ran to get a notebook and pen while Jughead had opened his laptop. When she sat down beside him again, she could see that the screen was open on a popular baby-name website. She watched as he clicked on the first article of names and read from the top of the list.

“Annabelle?”

X

Alice had arrived back to all her charges gathered in the sitting room surrounded by sheets of paper. On closer inspection she could see that the pages all had lists on them for some reason. Clearing her throat she brought their attention back to her.

“What’s this mess for then?” she asked as she watched them haphazardly try to restore order around them.

“They’re helping me pick out names for the babies,” Polly explained as the sheets of paper were slowly cleared away.

“Polly is very picky,” Jughead muttered, “I don’t think my parents put half as much time into picking mine and Jellybean’s names as we’re doing now.”

“Which is why you depend so much on your nicknames” her eldest daughter shot back. 

“Did you spend a lot of time on your daughter's names Mrs C?” Cheryl asked in that fake butter-wouldn’t-melt sweet voice, using that nickname that Alice honest to God hated.

Did she spend a lot of time picking out her children’s names? It had been all that she had thought about during each of her pregnancies. She had weighed each potential name carefully in her mind, debating the pros and cons of each and whether or not they would suit her child. And then for each birth she had three names picked out for each gender so she could decide when her baby was born what name suited them best. Daydreaming baby names had been one of the few things that had gotten her through her nightmare of an experience at the Sisters.

“I spent some time thinking names over” she shrugged in an attempt to act natural and not reveal her true feelings on the matter. Curiously her eyes went to a stray list that the kids had missed. She then snatched it up before they could notice and read off the names from Betty’s neat handwriting. “Fergus, Natalia, Stephanie, Daniel, Sasha, Samuel, Heather, Connell.”

“Oh no, they are all on the ‘no way in hell' list” Polly said horrified.

“Why?” she couldn’t help but ask, “they’re beautiful names.” What she wouldn’t give to have her grandchildren have names on this list rather than the risk of Juniper and Dagwood.

“They’re all the names my Mother likes” Cheryl explained and Alice dropped the list in horror.

“Ew” the word slipped out before she could stop herself causing a round of laughter from everyone else, but it was true all the same.

“Anyway we’re still trying to find the perfect boy's name, but I’m really liking Celine for a girl,” Polly said happily.

Celine. Alice turned the name over in her mind. It wasn’t a name that she had ever considered for her children. In fact it had often gotten disqualified in the early rounds of choosing a name, but Polly did seem to love it. Maybe she should wait to see if the baby was a Celine before she tried to change Polly’s mind on it. Some children after all were just born to have a certain name. And she had already promised herself when Polly had first started talking about Juniper and Dagwood of all names that she’d hold her tongue until after Polly had given birth.

At the very least it looks like she had finally discarded those ridiculous names she had originally set her heart on.

Celine Cooper didn’t sound so bad once you considered your grandchildren being stuck with Juniper and Dagwood for names.

X

Hal had tried to make Polly have an abortion. And when that effort had failed he had packed her off to the Sisters despite Alice’s protests over the situation. And even now that she was back home and it had been made very clear to him that both her and the babies would be going nowhere, he had actually tried to arrange a secret adoption, with him taking the babies off Polly immediately after she had given birth. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he would be making money off it too. Fifty grand per baby!

Polly had found the papers when she had been cleaning the study and had accidentally knocked one of her dad’s folders over. 

When she had been trying to pick it up, she had read the papers and screamed so loud that Alice had grabbed a knife from the kitchen and had charged from there to the study, ready to kill the monster who was killing her daughter.

But what she had found when she got there was her eldest daughter curled up in a ball on the ground hyperventilating, while her youngest desperately tried to calm her down. Cheryl was hovering above them, phone in hand asking whether she should phone for an ambulance, while the pounding of feet behind her indicated that Jughead was approaching the room. It didn’t take long for her to find the reason why her pregnant daughter was in such a state and once she had she longed to go and find Harold and stick the knife in him.

That fucking bastard, she never should have allowed him back home.

Well he was out now, for fucking good this time too.

That night, when the kids had all gone to bed - except for Jughead who seemed to be more nocturnal and was off working on his novel somewhere in the house, she had allowed herself a small cry in her bedroom.

Her marriage was over now. Completely over. Hal was gone for good. And even though they had been fighting more and more recently, even though bigger cracks had started to appear in their marriage, she had always hoped that they could pull through it like they always had. But this, this? There was no coming back from this.

Her mind slipped back to when Charles had been born and she had gotten to hold him in her arms for those brief glorious few minutes before he had been ripped away from her for good, creating a hole in her heart that her daughters had only been able to partially heal and she sobbed harder. She quickly shoved a fist in her mouth to muffle the noise.

She had told Hal about that experience when she had returned home from that nightmare at the Sisters and he had held her tightly and wiped her tears away. He had then looked her in the eyes and had promised her, swore on his life that he would never let something like that happen again to her or when they started to build a family. He had known how much that had destroyed her. And he had tried to put Polly through the same ordeal.

She couldn’t forgive him for that. She wouldn’t have forgiven him as a teenager and she wouldn’t forgive him now.

She had spent more than twenty five years of her life with Hal and now it was all over, the closing chapter. They had been through the trials of high school, her teenage pregnancy and stay at the Sisters, marrying young, the trials and tribulations that came with building a life and raising a family and the whole drama with Jason and Polly. But this had been the final straw. Polly and the babies had to come first.

So she let herself cry in quiet and in secret, where nobody could see her be weak and then in the morning she would weld herself back together and go and fight for what she deserved in that divorce.

She may not live in the Southside anymore, nor did she wear the leather of the Serpents, but she still had fangs and she had lived through harder times than these. She got through them then and she’d get through this now.

She was strong, after all, a survivor. A quality that she was pleased to have passed down to her daughters.

X

Cheryl’s confession at her kitchen table in the middle of the night was all that she needed to convince the girl to give her access to Thornhill. Cheryl knew the access codes, she knew the layout, she knew the codes to the safes and even her parents personal computers (not that her parents knew that.). She was what they needed to try and find anything to prove Cliffords guilt in Jason’s murder.

Cheryl also had a good idea of her parents whereabouts even though she wasn’t living at Thornhill with them anymore. And that was why she found herself driving up to Thornhill’s front door on a Friday afternoon with Cheryl in the front seat beside her and Betty and Jughead in the back. No amount of ordering had any effect. On Jughead especially. The very fact that the key to his dad’s freedom was possibly sitting in that house was a powerful motivator.

“And you’re sure no one’s here Cheryl?” Betty asked as she glanced around, on the look-out for some staff member of the Blossom estate or even the demon heads of the family themselves to make an appearance and demand an explanation for their presence.

“Positive. The second Friday of every month Mummy and Daddy head to Centreville for a monthly meeting and dinner with the shareholders. They’re never back until ten at night at the earliest. Depending on how long both events run on they sometimes don’t come back until the next morning. As a result all staff members are let off at two o’clock on Fridays. It should be completely empty.”

Cheryl’s keys still let her into the mansion and the alarm codes hadn’t been changed since so in less than five minutes they were heading up to Clifford’s study, Cheryl leading the way.

“I don’t exactly know where exactly everything is in Daddy’s office” Cheryl explained, “I’ve never really been in there much, I’ve always tried to avoid it. I figured out his password to his computer a month after Jason’s death when I hid in here to avoid him and I saw him put the password in but I’ve never gone snooping through it. The risks didn’t seem worth it at the time.”

“Is there anywhere else that you can think of where your dad might hide something?” Alice pressed. 

This was after all their only shot. It was the only time that Cheryl could guarantee that Thornhill would be completely deserted of both Blossoms and staff. FP’s sentencing was in a week and the man was facing around forty years in prison. Alice was determined to do everything in her power to make sure that he did not go down for a crime that he did not commit. He had already refused the legal help of both Mary Andrews and her own lawyer more than likely due to some threats made by Clifford Blossom; so they needed to find some evidence that proved Clifford’s guilt, or at the very least FP’s innocence to keep him out of jail. And if in the meantime she had her lawyer busy researching other ways to try and keep FP out of jail as well as ways she could keep Jughead in her home, as well as her divorce proceedings, well nobody had to know that.

“The Barns'' Cheryl said after a moment’s consideration. “Nobody, not staff, not board members, not family is allowed in there without Daddy's express permission and usually he’d be accompanying them too. If it’s not in the office, then my money's on it being in the Barns.”

“We’ll search the office first,” Alice decided. After all Clifford probably thinks that he’s off the hook for now, which means that he wouldn't be worrying about concealing evidence, which meant that he wouldn't be putting much effort into hiding it. And if they couldn’t find anything there then they’d search the Barns.

So they got to work. Carefully looking through all of the man’s records and looking through every file on the man’s computer. Nothing came up. Nothing incriminating. For a while Alice had started to think that it was hopeless. If Clifford was responsible for Jason’s murder then he had hidden his tracks well and set FP up perfectly for the fall.

And then nearly three hours in, two possible breakthroughs came in quick succession. Betty had gotten a phone call from a panicked Kevin Keller, whose on the run Serpent ex, who seemed to be FP’s accomplice in the whole ordeal. He had phoned Kevin to let him know about an insurance policy that he and FP had hidden in case one or both of them had been framed, showing who the real killer was. 

If it was Clifford himself then they had him in that bag. If it was a man that he had hired to do the job they may be able to trace it back to him, but even if they couldn’t it would free FP of the murder charges. So Betty and Jughead took off to wherever the boy had told them the evidence had been hidden, taking Alice’s car while Cheryl stayed behind to continue helping her search the office.

Only a few minutes after they left, Cheryl had found the flashdrives hidden inside a miniature Grandfather clock resting on a shelf. Several flash drives. So they had put the first one in the laptop and looked through the contents.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. The reporter in Alice started salivating like a cartoon dog with a bone as she read through the contents.

That little side business that Clifford had built as an extra source of income for his family? It was drugs. He was hiding it in the vats of maple syrup and exporting it all over the place. The first three flashdrives were filled to the brim with information about suppliers, dealers, shipments, payments, the whole lot.

That odious man was done for and maybe, just maybe, they could get Penelope too. There was nothing on them so far that implicated her, but they still had two flashdrives to go. There could still be enough in there to get the woman a nice long stay in prison. She could smooth things over with social services when it came to Cheryl.

Speaking of Cheryl she was handling the revelation about her dad’s drug empire much quieter than Alice had thought that she would be considering that she had made a dramatic fuss over what earrings she should wear to school just yesterday, but when pressed the girl just shrugged it off and reached for the next one.

“I’m here to find out who killed Jason” she muttered, showing off some embers of that Blossom fire. “I can break down over this later. Right now Jay-Jay is counting on me to find his killer.”

The fourth one contained the answer to why Hermione Lodge had arrived in Riverdale. She always knew that it involved more than just her husband’s incarceration.

They were distributing a new kind of drug called Jingle Jangle. They were planning to build a prison in the Southside along with at least an underground brothel, both of which would also serve as factories for manufacturing the drugs. The plans implicated both Blossoms as well as Hermione and Hiram Lodge. And Penny fucking Peabody.

She hadn’t realised that she had spoken the woman’s name out loud until Cheryl had asked “who’s Penny Peabody?”

“She lived near me when I was a child,” she explained, roughly already mentally mapping out what to say to a nosy gossip digger like Cheryl Blossom. “She claims to be a Serpent but would burn them all to the ground if she got the chance and it suited her needs. They’re not too gone on her either, but she hasn’t done anything to give them the opportunity to kick her out yet much to their annoyance. And she is not someone you would want to be in the debt of. I have seen her ruin so many lives of those who end up in her charms.”

“Yeah I figured she was a monster of some kind” Cheryl shrugged. “Anyone who does business with my parents aren’t exactly normal human beings capable of normal emotions.”

True enough.

The final flashdrive contained information a bit closer to home. Emails between Clifford and Mustang. Alice couldn’t help but remember him from when she had been a Serpent. He had been the one to give her her Serpents jacket, he had shared the same pride in being a Serpent as they all did. She wondered where that pride had gone if he was so desperate to be Clifford’s lapdog and potentially destroy the Serpents and the Southside.

Those emails had linked Mustang and Clifford to Jason’s death. It contained Clifford ordering Mustang to kidnap Jason and to torture him. To plant the weapon in FP’s trailer. 

And a video. 

Not the one of Jason’s murder, but of him threatening FP to stay quiet about said murder. And with one sentence FP’s freedom was well and truly guaranteed.

_“I killed my own son, you think I won’t kill yours?”_

“So he did it,” Cheryl said flatly, staring at the screen when the video had ended. “I was right. He did kill Jason.”

“You’re right” Alice agreed while she yanked the flashdrive out of the laptop and put them all into her bag. “The why is still up in the air but he’s confessed to killing Jason. Even if that lead Betty and Jughead were investigating turns out to be a dead end, this still proves his guilt. In your brother’s murder and a ton of other crimes. That man wouldn’t see the light of day again.”

And if she was really lucky neither would Penelope or Hermione.

Oh how lovely that would be.

An incoming text from Betty shook her out of her pleasant daydreams.

_'Lead panned out. Flashdrive with video of Clifford killing Jason.'_

God was smiling on her today. Quickly she texted her back.

_'Come get us right now. Got more evidence, tell you later.'_

_'And tell Veronica to start packing her bags.'_

Standing up she beckoned Cheryl out of her stupor and shepherded the girl towards the exit with more gentleness than she usually had. She had just found out after all that her suspicions were correct and regardless of her own feelings for Jason Blossom Cheryl had loved him deeply. Something like this was never an easy pill to swallow. She mentally made a note to book Cheryl an appointment with a counsellor.

She should probably make all the kids see a counsellor.

X

Jughead and Betty were already in the driveway waiting for them. They weren’t alone either. The Blossoms were rolling up the driveway in their big fancy car just as they were exiting the house. Alice wondered for a moment whether the family would be allowed to keep the car or the house once the feds descended upon them, before she shrugged it off. It wasn’t her concern and Cheryl didn’t seem to care either. Even if the authorities decided to seize every single penny off her parents the girl would still come into a sizable inheritance from her grandmother the moment she turned eighteen or her grandmother died. Whatever came first. And as the woman and her late husband hadn’t been involved or aware of Clifford’s drug empire it meant that it would be untouched by the authorities as well.

Penelope exited the car with her usual sneer painted onto her face, while Alice greeted her with a genuine happy smile. It was a far cry from her usual sneer at the cold-hearted Grinch but her mind just kept coming back to the image of that woman in handcuffs, being tossed into the back of a squad car and she just couldn’t help herself.

Maybe she should phone the media and give them a tip-off herself. Oh just the thought of professional photographers capturing the woman’s fall from grace not to mention the spite that would bring for Hal that the Register wouldn’t be the first and only one with the story made her hands itch for her phone.

Capturing both Penelope’s and Hermione’s fall from grace actually.

As luck would have it Hermione was actually in the car with them. Probably arriving back to celebrate some new drug deal that they’ve organised together. Or that brothel. Or the mother-fucking prison that they were planning on building in her town. Oh, was Hermione going to love being an intimate in one of those prisons.

She didn’t even need a Christmas present anymore, this was the best gift that she could have gotten all year.

“Alice Cooper, what a surprise” Clifford greeted neutrally as he stepped forward. “And Cheryl have you finally seen sense and decided to come home?”

“Save it Clifford, this isn’t a social call” she snorted, gently pushing Chetyl towards her car, “And we’re leaving anyway. Word of advice though? I suggest that all three of you better start enjoying your freedom while you still can. Because you don’t have much left of it.”

“Alice what on earth does that possibly mean?” Hermione said sweetly, in an attempt at playing innocent. She reckoned that Archie Andrews could do a better job than she did.

“It means that you’ve all done bad things” Cheryl spoke up suddenly, both her eyes and her voice hard as ice. Her eyes however were locked on her father and her father only. “And now everyone is going to know what you did.”

And with that the girl flicked her hair over her shoulder and got into the car, in her best efforts at acting like a regal princess, Betty and Jughead eyeing the Blossoms and the Lodge woman hard.

“I’d read the papers in the coming days though” Alice continued with a bright smile, “I think that what’s going to be gracing the front pages are going to be riveting. Bye, bye, now. Take care.”

X

Polly was waiting for them when they eventually arrived home, her hands anxiously cupping her swollen belly. She tried to speak up as they approached but Alice just shushed her, aware of Mary Andrews watching them from the Andrews window and hurried everyone indoors away from prying eyes. Once she locked the doors and closed the curtains, did she finally turn to answer questions.

“Did he do it?” was the first question out of Polly’s mouth as she sat tiredly down on the couch. “Was it him?”

She didn’t even have the strength to say anything, all she could do was nod.

And with that some part of her daughter just crumbled up and died inside as her knees gave out and she ended up on the floor, loud painful sobs wrenching through her body. Betty was beside her at once, arms wrapped tightly around her elder sister as she tried to give as much comfort as she could.

Eventually Polly calmed down and Alice had regained enough of herself to have halfway plotted out what steps to take next.

“Jughead”, her more or less adopted son at this stage, head shot up and he looked at her almost worriedly. “Get me your laptop” she ordered and he was off like a shot, heading up the stairs to his bedroom.

“Elizabeth” she continued, “go put the kettle up and make some tea for everyone. Absolutely no coffee.” After a moment’s hesitation her daughter rose unsteadily to her feet and headed to the kitchen, throwing a worried glance at Polly over her shoulder as she went.

Speaking of Polly, she was getting up herself, with a little bit of help from Cheryl. She looked broken in a way, more broken than she had been when they had heard of FP getting charged for Jason’s murder. She guessed the finality of it, that he was really dead and that it was his own father who killed him really had sunk it in.

She’ll have a private talk about it with Polly later, but for now Jughead was back and was gently handing her the laptop, already on and opened on Google like he was anticipating what she would do next. Or maybe he just didn’t want to know if she had figured out his newest password. (She did.)

“The flashdrive” she asked and it was being placed gently in her hand a moment later. Quickly she placed it into the laptop and found the file that she was looking for and muted the sound on the laptop.

She didn’t need the sound to know that that video would be ingrained in her mind forever.

Betty was just coming back into the room with a tray of steaming mugs in her hand just as the video had ended and she was looking up the number to the F.B.I.

“Did you text Veronica, Betty?” she asked as she typed the number in on her phone.

“Um, kinda? I said that she may want to get out of her house for a few days at least but then she texted back asking why and I couldn’t really answer because, I don’t know why.”

“Just tell her that some more crimes of her parents are going to be aired to the public by this time tomorrow evening and that she should want to be out of that house by the time that happens.”

“But where would she go?”

Alice had already come to terms with what she was going to say next as soon as she had found the evidence implicating the Lodges.

“I’m sure that you wouldn't mind sharing your room.”

And then someone on the other end answered her call and she ignored everyone else's faces as she filled them in on what they had found. 

X

In the wake of the Lodges and Blossoms arrests and the Lodges assets being seized, Alice once again had found herself in the position of opening her doors to yet another product of Riverdale’s shocking parenting. Veronica had arrived with just as much stuff as Cheryl if not more and somehow had managed to fit it all into Betty’s room with some impressive Tetris skills.

Her and Betty were partners in crime more often than not these days, she had both clashed and teamed up with Cheryl on nearly every possible subject, she bought expensive gifts for Polly and the babies and her and Jughead finally started to get to know each other better as brother and sister without Hermione trying to step in and ruin everything.

The fact that a large number of teens were calling her place home nowadays also meant that Archie Andrews was also over more often than not these days as the majority of his friends were here. Which on the good side however meant that it was easier to watch the developing relationship between him and who she was more or less considering these days to be her own son.

She had always thought it would be her daughters that she would have to protect from Archibald’s wily influences. Polly and Jason Blossom had only reinforced in her mind why she had to be so careful with Betty and the ginger menace, especially after her youngest had come home from the first dance of the school year heartbroken and in tears.

But just like her own self, Betty had pulled herself together and had come out of the ordeal stronger than before. And it seems like Fred Jr was turning his heart-breaking and seducing charms on to another one of her charges. Not the one she had expected honestly, but still.

But Archie seems to have genuine feelings for Jughead and these were not unrequited either.

Just another thing that she had to keep an eye on.

At least with this relationship there was no chance of a pregnancy.

X

A few days after the Blossoms and Hermione Lodge had been arrested by the various government agencies, Jughead did his best to try and tune Cheryl’s obnoxious talk about Tanya King’s new lipstick as she drove them towards Pop’s. He wasn’t sure just what he had done to deserve a punishment such as being forced to go with Cheryl to pick up breakfast without anyone else to serve as a distraction but he was genuinely regretting whatever it was he had done.

The whole ride had been torture and he had nearly cried with relief when she had finally pulled up outside Pop’s diner. Maybe the man had some earplugs or something that he could use to block out the rest of Cheryl’s chatter on the ride back.

He had just been about to hop out of the car when Hal Cooper had pulled up nearby. He hadn’t noticed them yet which gave them the perfect opportunity to observe him.

Physically he appeared fine and normal, but there was also this air about him now. Something in the way that he was acting just screamed ‘danger’! Every instinct that Jughead had inherited and honed when he had been growing up on the Southside screamed at him to get far away from Harold Cooper. Like the man was a danger to him. A threat.

Jughead had never ignored that voice once in his entire life. He wasn’t about to start now.

Glancing to the side, he saw that Cheryl had her phone out and was recording the man for some reason.

“What are you doing?” he asked, surprised slightly by how low that he kept his voice.

“Just getting evidence on what he’s up to. Polly is paranoid that he might still try something to take the babies from her. He’s already tried three times now, so I understand her worry about a fourth attempt.”

“What is he doing?” Jughead asked then incredulously,his attention drawn back to Betty and Polly’s father, not fully believing what he was seeing with his own eyes.

He had a gun. Hal Cooper had a gun and was pulling a Black Hood over his face.

“Is he going to-?” Cheryl’s own voice drawled off in horror, phone still recording as they watched Hal Cooper leave his vehicle and run into Pop’s.

In what seemed like less than a minute and at the same time hours later he came running out of Pop’s again, got in his car and drove off.

It took Jughead much longer than he liked before he was jumping out of the car and running towards Pop’s Cheryl not far behind him.

He didn’t know what Hal's motivation had been, but he had a really bad feeling that he was not going to like whatever he found in there.

**Author's Note:**

> Alice Cooper is a nosy busybody yes, but she is probably the only adult in Riverdale who is capable of getting things done. And she is probably the kind of person who even when she is talking to someone is mapping out her plots and schemes for getting information to her next story, so that is how I wrote her.
> 
> I am blaming the reason Polly gave her children such horrific names on the Farm. Seeing as she's not going to be anywhere near that nightmare of a place in my little au those twins aren't going to be cursed with being Juniper and Dagwood.
> 
> The fact that none of these children are having therapy after all they've been through is incredibly disturbing and unrealistic. From being groomed, framed for murder, almost being murdered, abusive home lives, etc. are just some of the reasons that they all should have been getting therapy from all the way back in season one. And that horrific school counsellor in season four does not count as a professional.


End file.
